A Living Curriculum
It is also a curriculum that is itself a living thing—dynamic, generative, responsive, evolving. Dan Siegel described this quality with the acronym FACES:
- Flexible
- Adaptive
- Coherent
- Energized
- Stable
Finally, it is a curriculum that has as its aspiration the support of all life.
This curriculum has two special properties: it is experiential and it is relational. It is intended to support and encourage participants in discovery and exploration, not academic study and discussion. We expect participants to engage the teachers and each other, assuming full responsibility for their own path while recognizing the crucial function of the support of teachers and others.
Many classes cover several areas of this comprehensive map; a full training includes work in all of these areas. They are supported and extended through technologies for learning and communication.
You can find out more about specific current and upcoming classes in the living curriculum here.
The resident teachers at Appamada
Flint Sparks, Ph.D.
Peg Syverson, Ph.D.
Introduction
These classes provide an overview of the concepts, methods, and teachings
of the Appamada curriculum, including the life of the Buddha,
the history and practice of Zen, basic meditation, the meaning
of Appamada, the life of the sangha, and the use of inquiry.
Meditation
Classes provide in-depth instruction in meditation posture, techniques,
and practices, including what to do about your body and your mind,
and how to establish a daily practice.
The Self
Classes include body-centered awareness, mindfulness, and
contemporary psychological and neurophyisiological models as
well as wisdom
teachings about self from the Zen traditions.
Others
Classes focus on study and practice of relationships, including
issues of attachment and attunement, compassion, and contemporary
interpersonal neurobiology, as well as traditional Zen teachings
such as liberating intimacy and the Bodhisattva Vow.
Organizations and Groups
Classes focus on study, practices, and challenges of social
groups, based on current understandings of complex systems
and social networks, as well as Zen teachings about sangha
and other wisdom ecosystems.
Work
One aspect of the eight-fold path is right livelihood. A
major part of "growing up" is coming to terms with the work
we need and want to do in the world. Classes focus on engagement,
effort, politics, and money as topics of study and practice
for the path of awakening.
The Arts
The awakened life is creative, liberated, and spontaneous.
Classes in this area focus on mindfulness, perception, imagination,
craft, and care, as well as the major expressions of Zen
in the arts.
The World
We are enmeshed in the world and the world's fate is our own.
Classes in this area explore mutual causality, the right
use of power, deep ecology, and our influence in and on the
world, as well as the traditional Zen teachings of dependent
origination and the Precepts.